The completed sales page is missing the link to download via DIM now.

I thought the central whatever one was for "new users", and not a replacement?

If you don't offer the original as an option it's basically replacing it, and means having to manually go open DIM every time. 

If there was a DIM link it would, I suppose, potentially confuse new users. I always open DIM manually anyway, aside from anything else it enables me to spot any product updates.

On the other hand, if they don't give DIM as an alternative how would anyone who was no longer a new user get to know about DIM or advance to using it?

Making it more troublesome to purchase goods if you use DIM doesn't seem to have any obvious benefit to me or anyone else who has no use for central.

They could at least provide text underneath saying "Or download via DIM" with the old link as a compromise between these new brand of confused by everything users and everyone else. 

You could post that to the Daz Central Beta thread, which did have Daz_People reading it, or send it in a support ticket.

The completed sales page is missing the link to download via DIM now.

I thought the central whatever one was for "new users", and not a replacement?

If you don't offer the original as an option it's basically replacing it, and means having to manually go open DIM every time. 

If there was a DIM link it would, I suppose, potentially confuse new users. I always open DIM manually anyway, aside from anything else it enables me to spot any product updates.

On the other hand, if they don't give DIM as an alternative how would anyone who was no longer a new user get to know about DIM or advance to using it?

Making it more troublesome to purchase goods if you use DIM doesn't seem to have any obvious benefit to me or anyone else who has no use for central.

They could at least provide text underneath saying "Or download via DIM" with the old link as a compromise between these new brand of confused by everything users and everyone else. 

You could post that to the Daz Central Beta thread, which did have Daz_People reading it, or send it in a support ticket.

The completed sales page is missing the link to download via DIM now.

I thought the central whatever one was for "new users", and not a replacement?

If you don't offer the original as an option it's basically replacing it, and means having to manually go open DIM every time. 

If there was a DIM link it would, I suppose, potentially confuse new users. I always open DIM manually anyway, aside from anything else it enables me to spot any product updates.

On the other hand, if they don't give DIM as an alternative how would anyone who was no longer a new user get to know about DIM or advance to using it?

Making it more troublesome to purchase goods if you use DIM doesn't seem to have any obvious benefit to me or anyone else who has no use for central.

They could at least provide text underneath saying "Or download via DIM" with the old link as a compromise between these new brand of confused by everything users and everyone else. 

The completed sales page is missing the link to download via DIM now.

I thought the central whatever one was for "new users", and not a replacement?

If you don't offer the original as an option it's basically replacing it, and means having to manually go open DIM every time. 

If there was a DIM link it would, I suppose, potentially confuse new users. I always open DIM manually anyway, aside from anything else it enables me to spot any product updates.

The completed sales page is missing the link to download via DIM now.

I thought the central whatever one was for "new users", and not a replacement?

If you don't offer the original as an option it's basically replacing it, and means having to manually go open DIM every time. 

Daz Central will not remove existing installed content, though people using the beta at least did find it changed some paths so if you are not using the defaults you might need tor eset them to your preferred options. You could use Install manager to download the files anyway - it is possible to use the filter box at top-right to by order number if you want to process single orders, or you could do it by a date range - http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/install_manager/referenceguide/interface/filter_field/advanced_filtering#order

My latest dark and evil experiment with UltraScenery. Inspired by @daventaki and others, I've taken a scene generated from Pond 1 and Woodland 2 and plonked the central part of Faveral's Lake Village into it. 

Cheers,

Alex.

So stupid me downloads DAZ Central and installs it without reading the forums.  It says I need to install DAZ, so I do and for some reason DIM always adds an extra \DAZ3D\ folder in the install path.  So I move the DAZSTUDIO4 folder to the correct spot, then remove the second DAZ 4.5+ install path from DIM.  Now I see that DAZ Central has hundreds of my products from the DAZ store listed as Not Installed.  I start to install many of them and get a message that my D drive, where my DAZ content is stored, is running out of disk space.  It appears that DAZ Central is not seeing any of the products that are already installed via DAZ Connect and is now installing them in the My Library folder even though all the files are already in the My Daz Connect Library folder.  So now my already huge DAZ Library is even bigger.  751 GB in size.

Now I read that DAZ Central is basiclly DIM with a pretty face.  At least DIM has a filter to not download and install DAZ Connect products, is that filter missing from DAZ Central?  Now that my Content Library is nearly double the size it should be, how can I un-install all the DAZ Connect products from My Library without lossing all my non-DAZ store products.

Once again DAZ releases a new feature that is not ready for prime time.

Any help on cleaning our all the duplicate prouct installs would be appreciated.

Screen shots below of the STUDIO Properties in Explorer and showing a product in stalled in both the My Library and DAZ Connect folders.  Added DIM Downloads Selection options.

Richard Haseltine said:

When I used Daz Connect, I found that I couldn't download the files on one PC, and then transfer them later onto my main PC, which meant that I couldn't create a backup of all my products. (I'm on a 2mb line so downloading takes forever,) 

Does DazCentral allow you to simply move your entire library around, backup, restore, move it onto an external hard drive if you start running out of space, move it to another PC, when you upgrade etc like you can with files downloaded through DIM? 

I guess this answers my question. it looks like we have to redownload our entire library. It seems like just another form of DRM to be honest. 

Can I copy products installed using Daz Connect from one computer to another?

The preferred workflow is to log in to each computer and install the desired products using Daz Connect

I like to move files around on disk to organize them differently. Can I still do that?

You cannot move files around for products installed through Daz Connect. You can change the drive and/or path to which products are installed using Daz Connect, but you cannot manually re-organize the files within the product.

The FAQ entries relate to Daz Connect (the Install pane etc. in DS), not Daz Central. (And the Connect files are not encrypted, so you can back them up - but they will not load correctly through CMS-based views if you move them.)

So so clarify then, if you use Daz Central to download files, does it use the connect format or the DIM format for saving files?

DIM

oh wow, okay. That's a pleasant surprise.  

personally I can't see the point of this new 'central' installer

DIM works perfectly well and the DIM screen display is far more compactly displayed

the few 'extra' options provided could just as easily have been added to DIM

I have never ever thought while browsing my DIM list 'oh that's a nice pair of shoes, I must immediatley start up DAZ and do something with them'

I rather suspect DAZ is trying to bring back 'connect' in a different guise

Daz Central is the same underlying system as DIM, not Connect.

I have accidentally purchased 'connect only' items in the past and been too lazy to return them, but I have never used them

They will be available through DIM if you check, they have been there for a fair while now since all the Connect-only, encrypted content was released for DIM/non-encrytpted a year after its release and it has been considerably more than a year since the last such release.

in fact i have more often than not uninstalled them

if this new system is trying to bring back connect (or central as the ONLY method of installation) then DAZ can look forward to losing a customer

far from bringing new flexibility this new central will bring less, as noted in earlier comments

I have many other hobbies which will happily fill my time

The aim of Daz Central is to make things simpler for new users, adding new features to DIM certainly wouldn't achieve that.

Although it's a beta, DazCentral become the official download manager. DIM link is removed now.

Daz Central is the default for new users, but a search for Install manager still brings up https://www.daz3d.com/install-manager-info with a link for downloading.

Richard Haseltine said:

When I used Daz Connect, I found that I couldn't download the files on one PC, and then transfer them later onto my main PC, which meant that I couldn't create a backup of all my products. (I'm on a 2mb line so downloading takes forever,) 

Does DazCentral allow you to simply move your entire library around, backup, restore, move it onto an external hard drive if you start running out of space, move it to another PC, when you upgrade etc like you can with files downloaded through DIM? 

I guess this answers my question. it looks like we have to redownload our entire library. It seems like just another form of DRM to be honest. 

Can I copy products installed using Daz Connect from one computer to another?

The preferred workflow is to log in to each computer and install the desired products using Daz Connect

I like to move files around on disk to organize them differently. Can I still do that?

You cannot move files around for products installed through Daz Connect. You can change the drive and/or path to which products are installed using Daz Connect, but you cannot manually re-organize the files within the product.

The FAQ entries relate to Daz Connect (the Install pane etc. in DS), not Daz Central. (And the Connect files are not encrypted, so you can back them up - but they will not load correctly through CMS-based views if you move them.)

So so clarify then, if you use Daz Central to download files, does it use the connect format or the DIM format for saving files?

DIM

Richard Haseltine said:

When I used Daz Connect, I found that I couldn't download the files on one PC, and then transfer them later onto my main PC, which meant that I couldn't create a backup of all my products. (I'm on a 2mb line so downloading takes forever,) 

Does DazCentral allow you to simply move your entire library around, backup, restore, move it onto an external hard drive if you start running out of space, move it to another PC, when you upgrade etc like you can with files downloaded through DIM? 

I guess this answers my question. it looks like we have to redownload our entire library. It seems like just another form of DRM to be honest. 

Can I copy products installed using Daz Connect from one computer to another?

The preferred workflow is to log in to each computer and install the desired products using Daz Connect

I like to move files around on disk to organize them differently. Can I still do that?

You cannot move files around for products installed through Daz Connect. You can change the drive and/or path to which products are installed using Daz Connect, but you cannot manually re-organize the files within the product.

The FAQ entries relate to Daz Connect (the Install pane etc. in DS), not Daz Central. (And the Connect files are not encrypted, so you can back them up - but they will not load correctly through CMS-based views if you move them.)

So so clarify then, if you use Daz Central to download files, does it use the connect format or the DIM format for saving files?

personally I can't see the point of this new 'central' installer

DIM works perfectly well and the DIM screen display is far more compactly displayed

the few 'extra' options provided could just as easily have been added to DIM

I have never ever thought while browsing my DIM list 'oh that's a nice pair of shoes, I must immediatley start up DAZ and do something with them'

I rather suspect DAZ is trying to bring back 'connect' in a different guise

I have accidentally purchased 'connect only' items in the past and been too lazy to return them, but I have never used them

in fact i have more often than not uninstalled them

if this new system is trying to bring back connect (or central as the ONLY method of installation) then DAZ can look forward to losing a customer

far from bringing new flexibility this new central will bring less, as noted in earlier comments

I have many other hobbies which will happily fill my time

I really love DAZ Central, especially after struggling for many years with too many separate files after creating renders in DAZ Studio. I am willing to pay for a commercial plugin to DAZ Central that would enable me to have the ability for my renders to show up sorted showing round thumbnails, file name, figure, date, and file size exactly as how "My Assets" and "Plugins" presently function. Such a plugin (to me) would be worth paying up to $35 to have.

When I used Daz Connect, I found that I couldn't download the files on one PC, and then transfer them later onto my main PC, which meant that I couldn't create a backup of all my products. (I'm on a 2mb line so downloading takes forever,) 

Does DazCentral allow you to simply move your entire library around, backup, restore, move it onto an external hard drive if you start running out of space, move it to another PC, when you upgrade etc like you can with files downloaded through DIM? 

I guess this answers my question. it looks like we have to redownload our entire library. It seems like just another form of DRM to be honest. 

Can I copy products installed using Daz Connect from one computer to another?

The preferred workflow is to log in to each computer and install the desired products using Daz Connect

I like to move files around on disk to organize them differently. Can I still do that?

You cannot move files around for products installed through Daz Connect. You can change the drive and/or path to which products are installed using Daz Connect, but you cannot manually re-organize the files within the product.

The FAQ entries relate to Daz Connect (the Install pane etc. in DS), not Daz Central. (And the Connect files are not encrypted, so you can back them up - but they will not load correctly through CMS-based views if you move them.)

Firstly I love the new thumbnail view, I've been wishing for this for quite a while,  ( i used to scrape the product pages and replace all the tiny thumbnails in the metadata folder with full res ones :D ). This makes my life much easier. 

Im a bit concerned about how much fragmentation there is in Installation methods

• poser runtime
• DAZ Library
• DIM
• Smart Content
• Daz central

One of the nice things about smart content is that it contextually gives you a list of compatible assets. Central is (at the moment) a slicker version of DIM (which is not bad but it feels like it should simply replace it)

I would love to see better search features added to this, with a tag system. The tool would be much more usefull if I could specify the same filters as the Daz Store, or even better an abriatry list of Tag or a simple query

like:

all: "Geneis 8" "Outerwear"

any: "Sci-Fi",  "Space"

at the moment the search features of all offerings are quite limited, and dont scale very well with a big content library.

I hope I dont come off as negative I'm a dev too and I know the pain of nothing but negative user feedback!

I tried to Download Das Central - when I try to install it onto my computer it opens up to Window appts on my machine, It shows DAZ 11 64bit. is intalled.   I have Daz 12 intalled. it shows that at the top of Daz Studio for one thing, I use to click on something and it would download onto my computer without going to Microsoft. I don't know what to do click on the Daz 11 installer or what how do Install DAZ Central at this point, this has never happend before.Every thing I've downloaded before just installed when I click to install, before

There is a thread for Daz Central, to which Daz staff were posting, it might be best to post there (or we can merge this thread into that). https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/407131/beta-for-dazcentral-your-new-content-manager#latest

Start DIM normally and check that its paths are still correct.

Thank you for the quick reply Leana.

I'm not sure what you mean by filters in DIM - I don't think I've ever set any.

If it is server problem, I guess I'll wait and hope it works next time.

After installing them with DAZ Central the items did appear under "installed" in DAZ Install Manager.